Deep House: The Midwest in African American Experience (various disciplines)

The Exodusters journeyed there, in search of some land and freedom. The great migration was, for many, a response to its call. The promise of the Midwest, with its plains, trains and industry, would become a dream deferred for many African Americans. Nonetheless, it gave us many of the most celebrated artists and scholars of that community. The Midwest provided the landscape for some of the most hard fought lawsuits in the struggle for racial justice, and the birthplace of the first holistic northern Black culture. From Dred Scott v Sandford to Brown v Board of Education, from Ralph Ellison to Toni Morrison, from Gwendolyn Brooks to Gordon Parks, from Blues to Techno and The Jackson Five, from the Robert Taylor Homes to the Black Wall Street, the Midwest has been a crossroads of African American experience, a persistent dance between hope and denial, symbolically represented by the 40th parallel, and its critical role in the nationalization and then eradication of slavery. The title of this book, “Deep House” is a double entendre, referring both to Lincoln’s House Divided Speech, delivered in Springfield Illinois, in which he protested the introduction of Kansas to the Union as a slave state, and to the local music of Black Chicago: “House,” in particular “deep house,” a meditative, repetitive, percussive and highly spiritual musical form which emphasizes transcendence. A collection of scholarly essays from diverse fields, this volume on the Midwest in African American experience, will centralize a critical yet oft-overlooked region. Deep House seeks to venture into new territory in African American Studies.

Call for Papers

The editor of this volume seeks scholarly essays between 25 and 40 typewritten, double-spaced pages. The pieces must not only address figures or events that occurred in the Midwest, but also take note of the significance of the region with respect to their subjects. Submissions from a wide variety of academic disciplines are welcome, particularly literary studies, cultural studies, sociology, history, anthropology, and law. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are due by February 2005, and completed papers are due by September 2, 2005. Abstracts and Papers should be sent as a Microsoft word attachment or pdf file to the e-mail address shown below. An author bio should be included in the body of the email.

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